Nitrogen gas is employed in many utilities in the retail, home or laboratory settings where traditional supply from storage cylinders is inconvenient and may pose a safety or space consumption issue or simply is an inconvenience. Nitrogen is employed as a small scale flush for packaging, for flushing sample containers in a laboratory or as an agent for beverage enhancement and dispense.
The inventors have discovered novel systems for preparation and dispense of nitrogen infused beverages as described in PCT/US15/28876, filed May 1, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, in U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/993,700, filed May 15, 2014, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and in U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/299,608, filed Feb. 25, 2016, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The systems described in these applications describe a nitrogen supply from tanks of compressed nitrogen. However, for utilities such as retail dispense or home use, installing and removing nitrogen cylinders is at least inconvenient and requires space consumption and is a source of safety concerns. Advancing technology has made available nitrogen generation systems wherein nitrogen is separated from the air via compression/membrane technology. However, the inventors have found that available systems having a sufficiently small footprint suitable for incorporation into a beverage dispense unit to be placed in the home or retail environment do not provide a continuous supply of nitrogen at an elevated pressure sufficient to support, for example, nitrogen infusion systems as exemplified in the previously identified applications. Moreover, systems having larger footprints which may be capable of supplying adequate nitrogen generate a high noise level which is considered unacceptable for retail and home use systems.
Therefore, there is a need for a small footprint self-contained nitrogen supply system which supplies a continuous supply of nitrogen at a pressure level sufficient to support a nitrogen infusion system while being sufficiently quiet to be acceptable for use in a retail setting.
Thus an object on the present invention is to provide a stand-alone nitrogen supply system capable of supplying nitrogen gas continuously at a pressure and rate useful for packaging flush or other such utilities.
Another object is to provide a nitrogen supply system capable of supplying nitrogen gas continuously at a pressure sufficient to support nitrogen infusion across a semi-porous or permeable membrane, which has a sufficiently small footprint to allow incorporation into a beverage dispense unit and which is quiet in operation.
A further object is to provide a convenient, cost effective system which does not require nitrogen supply from a compressed gas cylinder to infuse a broad spectrum of beverages with nitrogen and dispense the infused beverage in an attractive and facile method such that the system may be employed in a retail environment or in the home.